2023 poll: Over 6 million PVCs uncollected, reveals INEC • South West tops list of states with highest number of uncollected voters cards

By: Lateef Ibrahim, Abuja

As the presidential and National Assembly elections hold tomorrow, not less than 6,259,229 registered voters will not participate in the election as they are yet to collected their Permanent Voters Cards (PVCs).

The figure represents 6.7% of the total of 93,469,008 registered voters in the country.

The Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu disclosed this Thursday at the daily media briefing of the Commission in preparedness for the 2023 general election.

A total 87,209,007 Nigerians, according to Yakubu, have, however, collected their PVCs as at 5th February, 2023.

Statistics obtained from INEC indicated that states in the South West geopolitical zone has the highest number of uncollected PVCs.

The breakdown of uncollected PVCs showed that Lagos State leads with 845,225 uncollected PVCs representing 12 % of registered voters in the state, followed by Oyo State with 515,254 uncollected PVCs representing 15.7% of registered voters and Ogun with 410,281 representing 15.3% of registered voters.

Other states with high number of uncollected PVCs are; Edo State with 373,030 uncollected PVCs representing 14.9% of registered voters, Osun State with 360,794 representing 18.5% of registered voters, Ondo State with 261,981 representing 13.2% of registered voters.

Closely followed are; Rivers State with 251,418 representing 7.1% of registered voters,

Adamawa State with 225,916 representing 10.3% of registered voters, Delta State with 232,183 representing 7.2% of registered voters and Taraba States with 197,049 representing 9.7% of registered voters, Kaduna State with 170,735 representing 3.9% of registered voters and Benue State with 170,586 representing 6.1% of registered voters.

States in the North East geopolitical zones have low number of uncollected PVCs with Bauchi having 27,662 representing 1.0%, Gombe having 40,840 representing 2.6%, Yobe having 47,295 representing 3.2% and Borno having 66,072 representing 2.6%.

In the South East, Anambra has 31,690 representing 1.2%, Ebonyi has 45,851 representing 2.9%, Enugu has 117,404, representing 5.6% Imo has 139,583 representing 5.8%, and Abia with 171,626, representing 8.1%.

In the South South, Bayelsa has 46,967, representing 4.4%, Cross River has 93,667, representing 5.3%, Akwa Ibom has 158,795, representing 6.7%.

In the North West, Kebbi has 51,870, representing 2.6%, Jigawa has 52,933, representing 2.3%, Katsina has 55,274, representing 1.6%, Sokoto has 74,091, representing 3.4%, Zamfara has 76,815, representing 4.0% and Kano with 327,177, representing 5.5%.

In the North Central are, Nasarawa with 51,495 representing 2.7%, Niger with 64,616, representing 2.4%, FCT with 93,868 representing 6.0%, Plateau with 101,995, representing 3.7%, Kogi with 118,945, representing 6.2%, and Kwara having 158,653 representing 9.4%.

The INEC Chairman stated, at the press conference he addressed with the National Commissioners of the commission, that the electoral umpire is adequately prepared for the general elections. His words, “INEC is adequately prepared for the elections. Our allegiance is to Nigeria and no one else”.

Yakubu confirmed that INEC had gotten some forms of assistance, requested from the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, among others.

According to INEC Chairman, “The General Election commences in next 41 hours, with the national elections (Presidential and National Assembly) on 25th February and state elections (Governorship and State

Assembly) on 11th of March.

“The Commission has meticulously prepared and implemented its Election Project Plan, learning from recent elections.

“It is important to keep the sheer magnitude of Nigeria’s general elections in mind.

“The voter population of 93,469,008 is more that the total number of registered voters in all the other countries of West Africa put together.

“In addition, we shall be deploying to 176,606 polling units (excluding the 240 polling units without registered voters) simultaneously.

“This election is a huge logistical deployment. We have painstakingly procured, organised and delivered all the materials to the States for deployment. “We commenced the delivery of non-sensitive materials over two months ago and they have been batched down to Registration Area/Ward and Pulling Unit levels.

“Sensitive materials have been delivered to the States and are presently being delivered to our Local Government Area offices.

“As such, these materials are only between one and two levels away from the Polling Units. We have achieved this by learning from our recent difficult experience with logistics.

“We have completed arrangements with the transport unions for the final leg of the movement of personnel and materials to the Polling Units.

“They have assured us of their readiness to provide all the vehicular needs of the Commission for the election”, he said.

Naira redesign: FG not in breach of Supreme Court order, says Malami

By Egena Sunday Ode

The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, on Thursday broke his silence over the raging allegations of breach of the Supreme Court order with respect to the naira redesign policy of the Federal Government.

He said point blank that the Federal Government had done no wrong and had not breached the order by the apex court or any other order associated with the naira swap policy.

Malami spoke Thursday as a guest at the weekly media briefing by Ministries, Department and Agencies, MDAs on the activities of government, organized by the Presidential Communications Team at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.

He said all that the government was doing was to ensure that its right within the context of Nigeria redesign policy is protected, by challenging the order of the apex court.

Recall that the Governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El Rufai and his Kogi and Zamfara states counterparts, Yahaya Bello and Bello Matawale respectively, had on February 8 approached the Supreme Court and obtained and order restricting the Muhammadu Buhari-led Federal Government from banning N200, N500 and N1000 from circulation as legal tender.

The matter was adjourned for the second time on Wednesday, February 22 to March 3 for ruling.

Some of the governors in the dispute with the federal government have since announced to indigenes and residents in their states to continue to use the banned naira notes as legal tender in their domain, alleging that the Federal Government had flagrantly disobeyed the order or the apex court by refusing to recirculate the old naira notes.

Recall also that following the court order and ahead of the February 22 adjournment for hearing on the matter, President Buhari has last week Thursday made a nationwide broadcast where he insisted that the affected naira denominations had ceased to be legal tender after the grace period of February 10.

The President However, ordered the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to bring back N200 notes into circulation in order to mitigate the hardships occasioned by naira scarcity following the implementation of the policy.

Fielding questions after his presentation on whether the federal government is in breach of the Supreme Court order as alleged, the Chief Law Officer said:

“Your question can best be answered within the context of what constitutes a rule of law in the Nigerian situation. Where an order is made by a court, you have multiple options, but let me state before even addressing the issue of the options available at our disposal as a government.

“The fact, clearly, is that we are not in breach of any order made by the court, inclusive of any order associated with the naira redesign. We are not in breach. I believe I’m not a banker, but you have not gone to establish which bank is it that you have gone to present a N1000 or N500 notes that has been rejected. So we are not breach.

“But then, assuming we are in breach, the fact remains that this matter is sub-judice, as you rightly know. It’s being contested before the Supreme Court and when an order is made, you have multiple options within the context of the rule of law.

“One, you are entitled as a matter of right, if the facts and evidence support your position, to apply for setting it aside. The position of the law, legal jurisprudence is clear, once you are attacking and you’re seeking for a setting aside of an existing order of the court, you cannot be said to be operating in breach when you’ve presented your application for setting aside.

“If the court is not an apex court, you equally have a right of appeal and can support the right of appeal with an application for stay of execution order. So the bottom line of what I’m trying to state, if the matter is subjudice and within the context of the rule of law, we are doing the needful as a government, in terms of ensuring that the right of the government, within the context of the naira redesign, is being protected. So we are not in breach.”

The Minister also explained that some of the impediments to reforms in the judiciary is the penchant for some people to disguise personal interest as national interest thereby swaying unsuspecting citizens.

He reeled out facts and statistics by the Buhari administration to enhance electoral process, including financial autonomy to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.